“Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.” – Deuteronomy 4:40
Many today in our radically autonomous age of “you do you, I’ll do me” chafe at the very concept that the God of the Universe should have standards, rules, and expectations for those He created. We bristle at the concept that God defines right and wrong. We resist these ideas as “old fashioned”, “out of date”, “primitive”, “arbitrary”, and “backward”. As we worship Self above all in our culture, we reject any person or thing that tries to tell us what to do.
We need a dose of reality!!! God is the Creator of all things, which means He really does have authority over all things. He is all wise and all good, so he really does know what’s best. That’s perhaps where we’re most confused. God has standards and expectations for our behavior because they’re actually what’s best for our flourishing!
God gave His Law to Israel because it was not only best for them, it was a way to reveal God and His love to the rest of the world. He gave the Law so that EVERYONE could be blessed to have a relationship with Him. Israel’s failure to obey the Law not only condemned them to less than the best, it denied others the opportunity to see and know God for themselves.
As followers of Christ, we aren’t governed by the Law of Moses. That was for a specific people in a specific place. We’re governed by the Law of the Spirit (Romans 8:2). We’re governed by the even higher expectations and example of our perfect Savior, Jesus. These standards and expectations for our attitudes, words, and actions aren’t given to make our life gloomy and joyless. They’ve been given to us for our joy, delight, and happiness in the Lord! God really does know best. Where God’s standards go against our preferences and what we believe to be “most true for us” simply reflects the degree to which we’ve been deceived by our culture and our hearts. God’s way is the way of joy, delight, blessing, and flourishing. Trust Him, His wisdom, and His goodness!